Lies & Labyrinths

The path between Conrad’s class and the library would be the longest crawl of their so-far rather short lives. The three crept as one, Lilith at the front, Emily and Dwema right behind, each carrying one of their own staves. They had to take detours and cut through back hallways, avoiding the suits of armor that were now actively patrolling after the reappearance of the Knave. What normally took the length between classes ended up taking half an hour, which put them closer to midnight when the trio made it to the library.

The door of course was locked, because nothing was ever easy in life. Lilith attempted her trick with the bracelet, finding even that trick to be useless in the face of the more advanced lock of the library’s front door. It seemed the school had put more security into a public reading space than into the safety of its students.[42]

“Oh pshaw, one of these feeble locks?” The staff said, glowing at the tip.

“Think you can get it open?” Dwema asked the staff.

“Most certainly. If you would, Miss Jurgenhad, tap me against it.”

Dwema did so, a light blue spark emanating and glowing as it traveled into the keyhole. There was the sound of half a dozen clicks, and then the door swung open. No wonder The Knave had just asked Lilith to open the side door, it surely had saved a lot of time.

The library was rather ominous looking in the moonlight, which filtered down through the patchwork repaired stained glass ceiling above. The lanterns covered the tree, all of them returned to recharge in the pale glow of the moon, leaving everything beyond the immediate foyer nearly pitch-black. Conrad’s staff glowed as if sensing the very thought the others had, Dwema now taking the lead as they walked past the rows of desks used less for studying and more for detention. Lilith found herself glancing about nervously, expecting at any moment to encounter the head librarian, or the orc boy Sam, but neither seemed to be there on such a late night. It was good to know even someone serving a life sentence of detention got rest somewhere.

The room to the Prophecies department was unlocked, the gate wedged open with a door stop. The trio shared a look, Lilith mouthing “Inam”. Emily nodded in understanding. “What should we do?” Emily mouthed back.

Dwema pressed her head inside the gate, looking about before turning around.

“I think she’s left. Her stuff is here, including the key. We need to be quick.”

“What about the teleport sigil she had?”

Dwema pointed to a scuffed out erasure. “Looks like they erased it for security purposes.”

Passing through the gate, Lilith pulled the wedge from the door, sealing it shut behind. When the group was further in, Emily raised her voice to a whisper. “Where do you think she went?”

“Probably to get materials.” Lilith said, approaching the controls to the Model Veil and hitting the button that granted access to the room below.

It was worse than what she thought, which was quite a bit as Lilith had one over-active imagination. Stacks upon stacks of spell scrolls had been made in the few days since its inception, and the machine even now was pumping away at the latest task. Dwema approached the tapestry, lifting up the staff of Conrad to get a better look.

“Seven hells, they’re printing fireball spells!”

“Not just fireballs. Truth-tellers, paralysis spells, even your ghost hand.” Emily had moved to a second pile, looking through it. “See? They even made a stencil of your original spell, Professor Conrad.”

“They WHAT!?” The staff boomed in the chambers, making the three girls jump. “Profiteering off of war is one thing, but copyright infringement!? How DARE THEY! Did they really think that I would let them do such a thing without a single royalty cheque?” Though just a staff, one could have easily believed that it was glaring at the room about.

“Okay children, we must be swift. This is going to take all of my energy.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to conjure every spare spell scroll into here, and then I’m going to burn it all down.”

The staff began to vibrate in Dwema’s hands, wobbling hard enough to start to shake the young dwarf girl. Lilith and Emily reached their hands out as well, the end of the staff beginning to make loud zaps and pops, as entire reams of scrolls began to appear, along with entire cabinets of ink. Next came Arleigh’s desk, a pile of papers atop it along with what appeared to be his glasses, all pulled into the tiny room. The papers and bottles and quills began to vibrate, a cyclone of energy threatening to tear apart the very room as the staff began to laugh.

“YES! PUT ME IN AN INHIBITOR FOR YEARS, TAKE MY LIFE’S WORK TO PROFIT FOR YOUR OWN SELFISH GAINS! SEE HOW WELL IT DOES YOU! HA! HA-HA!” The staff began to wobble counter-clockwise, the room growing very warm, as a blue fireball started to grow in the center of the chamber. The fireball grew two eyes of burning coals and then snarled a set of large teeth, growing larger as Conrad continued to summon the fire elemental into the room.

“Destroy it all! All these things in this room! But not the children!”

The Fire Elemental spun, then roared, diving into the nearest pile of scrolls. They singed and popped, sparking as magic began to activate. Lilith, Dwema and Emily held on for dear life, a bubble of energy surrounding them as Conrad’s most famed spell, his stasis bubble, covered the three just in time for the wave of an explosion that bathed the room in brilliant blue and orange light. They watched in awe as the iron loom began to melt from the heat, bubbling and liquifying in a pile of metal where it rested. A chorus of more explosions echoed about, the floor above exploding, taking the contents of the various cabinets of prophecies both magical and mundane with it in a great multicolored flame that burst out and into the sky, sending the scrolls into the air like miniature lanterns. The barrier began to flicker and finally fade,the staff beginning to cough and sputter as it did.

“I apologize, but I am nearing the end of my abilities.” The staff said, voice flickering in and out.

Lilith looked up and around at the debris, out of the hole and towards the gate. Right at Professor Inam, who stared in horror and despair at her life’s work gone up in flames. She turned, running to get help.

“We’ve been made.” Lilith said with some dejection.

“Oh well.” Emily sighed. “It was for a good cause.”

“It BRRZZT wououould be in your best interest to be far from here. If I mayyyy make the suggestion, I can send two of you away.” The staff said, his voice warbling in and out.

“Just two?”

“Unfortunately, I shall be needing someone to focus my powers throughhhh me.”

“It’s okay you two.” Dwema said, looking between Emily and Lilith. “All they can do is kick me out. I’m a dwarven princess, it’d be a disaster to do anything else.”

“You’re a what!?” both said in unison.

“Couldn’t you tell? I’m probably the most pampered of all the dwarves.” Dwema grinned. And then before the pair could protest, she pointed the staff at them and cast them as far away as she could with the remaining power left in the dwindling staff of Conrad the Conjurer.

‘As far away as he could’ turned out to be the second floor of the Library, Emily and Lilith reappearing three feet off of the ground in a pile of books. The aisles were littered with tomes of all kinds, the ripple from the explosion having left the place in disarray. There were sounds of shouting as others came running into the area; Inam, Cobalt and [red], then the first suits of armor that could be summoned; their clanks could be heard echoing through the library as they filtered out to block all exits.

Lilith and Emily crept through the pile of books to reach the edge of the row. A spare key had been found, McDougal (with a drunken slant to his hussle) was the next adult to come running in, the sound of the metal door creaking open.

“Al’i’, ’uhm ou- wif ’our ’ands up!”[43] shouted McDougal into the room.

There was some delay, before McDougal returned into view, dragging Dwema by the scruff of her neck.

Arleigh and Klymviner entered, running a bit later than the usual lot, and with them Twixtfeather, still in his nightcap. “I say, what in blazes is going on here?”

“It’s all gone…” Inam said. Lilith felt a pang of guilt at the sorrow in Inam’s voice, who now moved beneath their view from the rail to inspect the place for herself.

“How is this possible?” Klymviner asked, actually impressed. She drew her wand, pressing it beneath Dwema’s chin at her throat. “Who helped you?”

“No one. I just took the staff from Conrad’s room and did it myself.”

Dwema had lied for them.

“Is that so? Inam, when you arrived did you see anyone else?”

Inam stared at Dwema. “No. Just her.”

Two people had lied for them, and Lilith couldn’t tell which one surprised her the most.

“So, sabotage eh?” Arleigh said, striding towards the room. “It seems good old fashioned hand-written scrolls is the way to g- MY DESK! MY CABINETS! MY PAPERS!” Arleigh could be heard shouting, letting out a heavy wail.

Dwema spat on the ground, glaring at Klymviner who still pressed the wand to her throat. “Every scroll in a mile radius, up in smoke. And you best watch where you point that, professor. My mother would never let you hear the end of it.”

“Do put that away Bella.” Twixtfeather said in a soft voice. “Dwema… why? Why would you do this? You are one of our most well behaved and law abiding students. Why would you throw all of this away? The strides you were making, I truly thought you’d be a Beta by the other side of the Weaving.”

“I did it because it had to be done.” Dwema said, refusing to say anything else.

“Very well. Bella, dismiss the knights. We’ve got our suspect, it seems this wasn’t the work of The Knave after-all. Time to pay the Headmaster a visit.”

All of the adults seemed to shudder at the thought. Placing one wing on Dwema’s shoulder, Twixtfeather steered her out as all of the other adults followed, save for Inam.

The footsteps echoed out into the hall, leaving just Lilith, Emily and Inam.

“You can come out now.” Inam said. Lilith and Emily peaked their heads over the side, seeing the professor looking about.

“I regret nothing.” Lilith said over the side. Inam turned, looking up at the pair with deeply saddened eyes.

“I do. I regret plenty. I regret being so focused on the future that I didn’t pay attention to the present. I regret not doing more to listen, or more to help.”

Lilith didn’t know what to say to that, and so she only stared.

Inam took that as an answer altogether. She turned, taking slow steps towards the door.

“You were right, Lilith. This school is rotten. This whole world is rotten. And we’re only delaying the inevitable. You better leave now, while the others are preoccupied. The both of you. There’s a curfew, if you didn’t hear. And lots of people in places where they don’t belong.”

Emily placed a hand on Lilith’s shoulder, pointing towards the side exit that lead to a second floor balcony on the east side of the library. She nodded in understanding, following her out.

The smoke was visible from outside, the wreckage far greater than the attack conducted by The Knave. It was impressive, really. Students would be talking for years about it. Or, well, hopefully years. Maybe only four, if one believed in such things.

Emily paid it no mind, pointing her own staff at a maple tree not far from the balcony. It began to shift, stretching out two long limbs which scooped up the pair, depositing them on the ground. They said nothing; there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. Nothing could make them feel any better, or any worse, than they already did. They had potentially saved countless lives, but at the cost of ruining one life. [44]

They hugged at the garden, Lilith whispering a soft “thank you” into Emily’s ear, who only nodded. Afterwards, she crept off on her own towards the Delta wing.

Dwema’s door was open when she managed to sneak inside her floor, the contents of her room empty, with narry a sign that she had ever been there to begin with. The school worked fast with their academic probations. Lilith worried of Dwema, wondering about her as she slipped back into her room and crawled into bed. She wondered if Dwema was doing the same, somewhere far off in a place that had rooms and doorways and furniture her proper size, with people as stubborn and bullheaded as she.

Probably not, she decided. She was probably just happy to be at home,Turning over in her bed, Lilith thought of home herself, and prayed to whoever cared to listen, to let her see her own home once more.

Footnotes:

[43] Come out with your hands up.

[44] In some circles this is known as the Trolley problem, or, the problem with leaving children unattended on tracks and being bad trolley conductors